Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I've been trying to read up on starting a planted aquarium for a while now. I’ve found myself ending up on this forum a lot so I signed up this past weekend. I also received my Eco - Complete substrate I ordered in the mail and got my 55 gallon filled this past weekend. Even though I know the lighting I have is insufficient I went to Petco and bought 6 plants to start. Originally I had a list of plants I made from researching on this forum. (Only very low to low light easy plants.) However Petco does not have a good selection and I ended up having a hard time just finding 'true' aquatics never mind easy ones! So here is what I have:
Hygrophila corymbosa stricta (Compacta)
Microsorium pteropus (Java Fern)
Cryptocoryne species unknown
Bacopa caroliniana (Lemon Bacopa)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Micro Sword)
Echinodorus argentinensis (Argentine Sword)
After looking up the plants it seems most of them will do ok with low to med-high light. I didn’t spend a whole lot so if I lose a couple due to low light I will just try something different next time.
My biggest problem right now is I don't have much to spend and I want to figure out the least expensive lighting choice to keep plants alive. I saw someone post about reasonably priced Odyssea lighting, so I was thinking of getting an Odyssea 48" T5 HO Aquarium Light Dual Fluorescent Hood Fixture - Freshwater 2x54W. Does this sound like a good choice? I am open to having to upgrade in the future but for now I don’t want to do much more than add the min. necessary lighting to start out. In other words I don’t want to have to get a complicated CO2 injection system or what not, at this time. I’m not sure at what point of lighting this would be required.
I would actually like a light similar to this Odyssea but with 3 bulbs, if it was not too much more money, however I can’t seem to find one. Plus I’m wondering if extra bulb brings me to a point of needing CO2.
I know this is already a long post, but I am also trying to keep in mind the possibility of being able to add moonlighting. So we can enjoy the tank in the evening. Do moonlights using LEDs have any effect on plants? Can you use Actinic lighting as moonlighting or does it have an effect on the plants? I would only want to run them until I went to bed if it is best to leave them off for some period.
Another thing I’m pondering is how to go about putting all this lighting over my aquarium.
It has the black plastic opening lids in front, with a bridge divider in the middle of the tank and the hood currently has, what I believe to be, plexi glass in a 4” wide section where 2 individual T8 single tube light fixtures sit. This has me wondering if the light fixture can sit directly on the hood or if the plexi glass is not appropriate for that. Or if it depends on the light?
My husband is against me changing to the full glass top style and I actually don’t prefer the way that looks myself, plus it will make costs go up. (Maybe not muchmore if you factor in the extra cost of having to buy two fixtures rather than one.)
However I would prefer to put lighting that will work with my hood I have, which only allows 4” of width. I am thinking I might be better off with two separate 24” fixtures however with the increased cost between initial fixtures and bulb replacements costing more I think a 48” will be the better way to go.
Please give me your opinions and ideas. Thank You :redface:
Hygrophila corymbosa stricta (Compacta)
Microsorium pteropus (Java Fern)
Cryptocoryne species unknown
Bacopa caroliniana (Lemon Bacopa)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Micro Sword)
Echinodorus argentinensis (Argentine Sword)
After looking up the plants it seems most of them will do ok with low to med-high light. I didn’t spend a whole lot so if I lose a couple due to low light I will just try something different next time.
My biggest problem right now is I don't have much to spend and I want to figure out the least expensive lighting choice to keep plants alive. I saw someone post about reasonably priced Odyssea lighting, so I was thinking of getting an Odyssea 48" T5 HO Aquarium Light Dual Fluorescent Hood Fixture - Freshwater 2x54W. Does this sound like a good choice? I am open to having to upgrade in the future but for now I don’t want to do much more than add the min. necessary lighting to start out. In other words I don’t want to have to get a complicated CO2 injection system or what not, at this time. I’m not sure at what point of lighting this would be required.
I would actually like a light similar to this Odyssea but with 3 bulbs, if it was not too much more money, however I can’t seem to find one. Plus I’m wondering if extra bulb brings me to a point of needing CO2.
I know this is already a long post, but I am also trying to keep in mind the possibility of being able to add moonlighting. So we can enjoy the tank in the evening. Do moonlights using LEDs have any effect on plants? Can you use Actinic lighting as moonlighting or does it have an effect on the plants? I would only want to run them until I went to bed if it is best to leave them off for some period.
Another thing I’m pondering is how to go about putting all this lighting over my aquarium.
It has the black plastic opening lids in front, with a bridge divider in the middle of the tank and the hood currently has, what I believe to be, plexi glass in a 4” wide section where 2 individual T8 single tube light fixtures sit. This has me wondering if the light fixture can sit directly on the hood or if the plexi glass is not appropriate for that. Or if it depends on the light?
My husband is against me changing to the full glass top style and I actually don’t prefer the way that looks myself, plus it will make costs go up. (Maybe not muchmore if you factor in the extra cost of having to buy two fixtures rather than one.)
However I would prefer to put lighting that will work with my hood I have, which only allows 4” of width. I am thinking I might be better off with two separate 24” fixtures however with the increased cost between initial fixtures and bulb replacements costing more I think a 48” will be the better way to go.
Please give me your opinions and ideas. Thank You :redface: